Some computer models predict 1 metre sea level rise by the end of the 21st century. However, the actual experimental data shows, at most, a slow and modest increase in sea levels, which seems completely unrelated to CO2 concentrations. The main estimates of long-term sea level changes are based on data from various tidal gauges located across the globe. These estimates apparently suggest a sea level rise of about 1 to 3 mm a year since records began. Importantly, the rate still seems to be about the same as it was at the end of the 19th century, even though carbon dioxide emissions are much higher now than they were during the 19th century.

There is currently a debate in the Netherlands about the future rate of sea level rise. Independent researchers estimate that the sea level will rise 20 cm to the end of the century, while the IPCC expects about 50 cm. A government commission recommends an expenditure of 80 billion euros over the next 40 years to raise dikes based on a high case sea level rise prediction of 110 cm by 2100.

Sherwood, Keith and Craig Idso of CO2 Science examnes recent claims that recent discharges of glacial ice from Greenland and Antarctica may accelerate sea level rise. They show that there has been no net loss of ice at either location that would contribute to sea level rise.

A short document summarizing a study by Church et al, 2004. The best estimate" of the rate of globally-averaged sea level rise over the last half of the 20th century is 1.8 +/- 0.3 mm yr-1. They further note that "to date there is no detectable secular increase in the rate of sea level rise over the period 1950-2000."

An interview with Dr. Nils-Axel Morner. Dr. Morner is the head of the Paleogeophysics and Geodynamics department at Stockholm University in Sweden. He is past president (1999-2003) of the INQUA Commission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution, and leader of the Maldives Sea Level Project. He shows that the IPCC projections of sea level rise are "nonsense".